Dabo Swinney explains if there are any advantages to opening the season against Georgia

The Clemson Tigers start the season with one of the marquee matchups to kick off Week 1 of the college football season, traveling down to Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta to take on the Georgia Bulldogs.

There’s nothing quite like a high-stakes season opener in college football as teams truly know the least about themselves and their opponent heading into the year. With that in mind, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked at ACC Media Days if there’s any advantage to playing a challenging game right out of the gate versus later in the season.

“All the advantages are when you win it, other than that I think you get exposed to playoff football right out the gate. Like that’s really what it is, I mean it’s that caliber football,” Swinney said. “Both teams get better, I mean both teams get better as you go throughout the course of the season, but there’s an edge to it for sure.”

Clemson is no stranger to big-time matchups to start the year, opening up the 2021 season with a matchup against the Bulldogs in Charlotte. Also squaring off against conference opponents in four of the last five seasons in Week 1.

“I mean we’ve opened up everywhere, we’ve opened up at Auburn and we’ve opened up in Atlanta a couple times, obviously last year on the road. I don’t think we’ve had a home game opener maybe since about 2019, it’s been a while,” Swinney explained.

Georgia bested Clemson in a narrow 10-3 win the last time they faced off, with the Bulldogs boasting a 43-18 record all-time against the Tigers. Arguably at the peak of their powers now with national championship wins in two of the last three seasons with a 42-2 record during that stretch.

“So opening up on the road, Georgia to me has been the best team in the country for the past three years in totality. I don’t know that anybody would argue with that,” Swinney said. “They’ve been really, really good and they’ll be great again this year. So certainly young players, they all have respect for competition and they all take pride in performance and so it certainly brings an edge to your preparation.”

There may not be a better time to face the Bulldogs than in Week 1 before Kirby Smart and his squad get into midseason form, as Georgia and Clemson will square off on August 31 at noon ET in a primetime matchup airing on ABC.